A Shining New Era
by Chris Boyce
Summary: Ahadi founds the Pridelands dynasty. Mufasa and Scar are born, but it is Sarabi who is the first cub. The cover image is the only known visual impression of Immue, a troubled lioness, the mother of Scar, whose presence and influence in the Pridelands drives many of my Lion King stories.
1. Mandrils

Originally written February 1997.

This version edited and republished October 2012.**_  
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**_Mandrills_**

"Oh no, no, no, this can't be - it's too easy," the lioness thought as she closed on her prey, patiently and silently edging forwards through the shoulder high grasses. She was not sure she even believed it herself.

It had been a short dry season; the rains had come early. The mud that so often made the gullies and hollows of the western valley impassable coated Immue's paws, weighing them down. Each slow step becoming more uncomfortable as the layer of mud pressed into her pads.

She had ventured among the crags and mud covered floor of the valley in pursuit of her favourite prey: warthog. She loved the rich, salty, warm taste of the flesh. She wasn't so keen on the tusks and the trotters that could gash her tough skin and deliver a kick strong enough to break bone. Larger prey, particularly zebra, was more dangerous still and might even break the back of a fully grown lioness with just a single blow.

"If you go in from behind," Akase, the pride's most experienced and successful huntress, had once told her, "go in high and hold on tight." It was sound advice, though Immue would not always heed it. Akase's next words however, were ones which Immue was to remember for a long time: "If you go in at all; go in to kill."

"Hmmm," Immue quietly said to herself as she parted the grass with her nose, "time to go in." She paused to watch her unconcerned prey. The mandrill sat with his lilac rump just visible on the ground. He bent his knees up by his age-greyed chest. He picked tiny berries one by one with alternate hands from a low bush. He stuffed them in his mouth and chewed noisily.

After a while he looked carefully about the bush in search for any berries he might have missed. Finding none, he grunted disappointedly and dropped his arms to the ground and began to lift himself to his feet. Before he could rise he was violently to one side into the mud by a massive force. It bore down on his back and grew unstoppably until the sky darkened in pain that, though intense, did not last long.

"I do like you Rafiki," Immue said darkly, "Well, I like all mandrills; but I don't think I could eat a whole one." She laughed gently to herself as she bent her head down, open-jawed, lightly gripping the stubby neck of her victim. She drew her jaws together slowly and deliberately; feeling the bones of the monkey's neck crack one by one between her teeth. Unending moments later the elderly mandrill fell still, released from his pain for ever. "I'm sorry my dear. It _was _simply too easy; yes, yes, yes." She dropped the limp meat into the mud, licking her teeth greedily. "I think I might make an exception for you Rafiki. Maybe I can eat a whole one after all."

The body of her kill slumped over and its eyes stared unseeingly back at Immue. "Oh no," she exclaimed, "perhaps it really was too easy!"

~oOOo~

"So young Scar," he said as he walked haltingly beside the flame orange cub, "where's your mother this morning? Eh?"

"Oh, I don't know," Scar said vaguely. "Tell me - you give Mufasa all this?"

"What? Mufasa all what? You tell Rafiki now."

"All this," repeated Scar scornfully in agitation, "...where you been? What you doing? Who you with: all that? You're not _my_ mother."

"So, why you here eh? Why come and see a mandrill like me?"

"I..." Scar considered, searching for an answer to hide behind. "I want to learn something."

"Eh? Learn - learn what? Magic eh? Want me to turn you into a frog? Is that it?"

"Yuucck!" Scar turned away from Rafiki suddenly. "No way! Anything but that!"

"Ah, what about a mandrill? Like me?"

"Yeah, great! Wow, then I could swing through the trees!" The cub stood up and swayed from side to side, holding his tail high.

"Well now, not so fast, we're talking like me - a mandrill, not a vervet."

"Oh, yeah..."

There was a long, uneasy pause. Scar sat, patiently at first, but becoming increasingly restless as time passed. Rafiki sat quite still and calm, looking beyond the cub to the west as if searching for something. Scar looked intently at Rafiki as the waiting continued, becoming unbearable.

"Hey - monkey! Am I a mandrill yet?"

Rafiki looked over the cub for a few moments. "Sure, now there are two of us. Whatever will you're the king say now that he has a mandrill for a son?"

"Well - I don't feel like a mandrill. I mean I don't feel all blue or nuffin..."

"Nuffin – Pabbbh! No? You're a young mandrill yet. You won't turn blue for years. Just wait, your time will come. Listen to Rafiki, he knows. The ladies will love you."

"No! Not yet - all that smoochy-huggy stuff - no way am I going to have a lioness! I mean, whatever you mandrills call them." Scar exaggeratedly shook his head as if to add weight to his words.

"There'll be lots of little Scars one day, you'll see. Strong lads and beautiful lasses, fur as golden as the sunset."

"Hmmm, but I thought mandrills are blue and grey," Scar said probingly, wondering if he really was a mandrill at all, "…and there's no way I'm having cubs." He sat up pushing his chest forwards and holding his head high. "I'll not have any time for that when I'm king."

"Ah, but my friend, you cannot be king now."

"What?" Shouted Scar in obvious distress. "Mum says I'm gonna." He rose and turned on Rafiki with bared teeth. "She says I'm gonna be the bestest king ever."

"Going to be the best," corrected Rafiki firmly, "and mandrills can't be king. Only lions can be king. We haven't got the teeth: can't roar. See?"

"Oh…" Scar stopped and stood, casting his head down. "You're right. Maybe I wanna be a lion again."

"May be. But you can be a lion any time. I'll not turn you into a mandrill again. You see? Enjoy it while you've got the chance!"

"Yeah, I guess so. But hey? Who am I anyway?"

In reply Rafiki laughed loudly, jumping back and forth waving his stick in front of the cub. "You mean you don't know? Why you ARE confused!"

"No, no! Oh..." Scar sat back firmly, he was beginning to tire of the mandrill's cryptic talk. "I mean Scar's not a name for a mandrill, hmm?"

"Oh no, right again. It isn't. So, who do you want to be?" Rafiki drew close to the Scar and bent low and close to look into the cub's eyes. Scar, drawing back instinctively, thought for a few moments before swatting ineffectively at Rafiki with a forepaw. "Eh? You have to be quicker than that if you want to catch a mandrill like us," said Rafiki as he dodged the cub's ill-aimed blow before rushing off.

Scar jumped up and followed, surprised by the mandrill's speed and agility. As he ran he felt the stones slip on the soft ground beneath his pads. He pushed his claws out a little to grip. They clicked and clattered on the stones as he ran after the leaping and bounding monkey. The pair chased each other towards a clump of acacias, their dappled shade proving to be a welcome relief from the burning sun and moist heat of mid-morning.

The fully grown mandrill proved too fast for the young cub to catch and in a short time Scar gave up chasing and lay down, panting on the floor of the thicket close to a thorny bush as all around him the rustles, whistles and shimmers of the breeze through the trees filled his softly furred ears and deep green eyes. Here the lion cub felt ill at ease and restless in the strangeness of his surroundings that seemed higher than he was used to. The trees rose up around him and filled him with a sense of enclosure that frightened the cub, so used to the expanse of the open savannah.

The mandrill however was quite at ease in the half-shade of the thinly branched, parasol canopy of the acacias. Here it was Scar who was the weaker animal: the hunter was now the hunted.

Rafiki stopped and looked back to see the small cub lying, cowering beneath the tree tops. He did not think long before bounding back to sit beside the hunched and tense, dark furred cub. He spoke to Scar quietly and intimately, as a father to an uncertain son: "you can be Makedde, my brother."

"You... have a brother?" Scar pressed his head firmly down to his forepaws, his tightly closed eyes loosening a little.

"Yes, of course! A brother and a cousin. He's coming to see me."

"Your brother?" asked the cub as he dared to open one eye just a little. Rafiki laughed gently as he lay his stick down on his open side.

"No, he's already here. You are here aren't you?" Rafiki did not wait for an answer from the cub who raised his head a little from his paws as he felt his warmth against his side.

"My cousin: Faraki. He should be here soon you know. He's never seen the Pridelands. No, he'll get a surprise when he gets here. I know, yes, that's it."

"That's what?" Scar's curiosity getting the better of his fear.

"He'll be stuffing himself somewhere. You know, don't know where he puts it. Me? I can't eat anything in my baobab without wondering if I'll get stuck for days. You know, it will get him into trouble, sure it will." Rafiki put his arm around Scar and chuckled, holding the warm cub and lifting him gently to his paws.

For a few moments Scar luxuriated in the comfort of Rafiki's warmth then pushed him away, remembering his mother's warning: "Never let anyone touch you my little one, you never know what they want from you, it could be something terrible." Scar was uncertain as to what Rafiki might want, yet he could see no harm in this closeness. Indeed there was no harm: Rafiki held Scar out of genuine concern and unconditional friendship. The young Scar had no understanding of his mother's fear of adult's 'terrible' intentions.

Before Scar was able to give much thought to his confused feelings he was distracted by a glimpse of something brightly coloured: a transient flash of blue and orange high above him. He turned his head skywards. For a few moments his eyes were flooded with the unaccustomed brightness of the savannah sky, even though it was partially shaded by the canopy of acacia tops. As he squinted upwards the blueness resolved itself into the unmistakable form of a hornbill flying steadily, scanning the ground below. The bird flew on without spotting the unlikely pair of cub and mandrill through the tree tops. Rafiki drew a hand up to his forehead to shade his eyes from the glare as he too, in response to the minute sounds of the bird's flapping, turned his gaze to the sky.

Seeing them, Zazu opened his eyes wide and added an extra forward turning flap to his steady wing beat, slowing him in flight. Then he swooped down to the pair and alighted, absurdly small, on the ground in front of Rafiki. Turning to Scar, he said with a deliberate nod of his beak: "At last, there you are. Your father has been looking all over for you, my boy."

"Tell the king he's with me. You do that. Go on, off you go!" Rafiki rushed forwards, grabbing his stick from where it lay on the ground and waving it wildly at Zazu. In a flurry of feathers and a couple of loud squawks, Zazu flustered upwards and flew off indignantly towards the dark shadow of Priderock. "Go and report that. Ha, haah!" The mandrill jumped up and down laughing and waving his stick at the receding bird. "Hah! Gets him every time it does! Haah!"


	2. New Friends

_**New Friends**_

Ahadi did not like wandering all over the Pridelands looking for wayward cubs. He knew it was his duty and he performed it with diligence and due care; but he could not have been said to enjoy it. His mate, Akase, had been asked by Immue, at very short notice it must be said, to look after her son Scar while she went off hunting. No other lionesses went with Immue, as the heat and humidity were oppressive.

Scar seemed unaffected by the heat of the day and played with Akase's own cub, a male just a little older than himself, for a while until a dispute blew up which escalated with the unsuspecting and substantial Mufasa taking the full force of Scar's vicious claws-unsheathed swipe. Akase never found out whom or even what had initiated the incident. No doubt some petty jealousy, she assumed, however she thought it best if they were separated for a while.

For a time peace seemed to have returned and Akase allowed herself the luxury of a doze with her son draped over her forelegs. She felt the body of Scar settle at her back. When she awoke Scar was nowhere to be found. He had obviously wandered off by himself somewhere. There were no tracks or any other signs to show that any other animals: friend, foe or prey had approached during their sleep. Scar's tracks, faint and faltering, lead off westwards for a short distance then disappeared into thick grasses. The smells of fresh growth masked all scent of the cub.

Akase knew Scar had to be found and quickly; the hyenas that frequented these parts had already shown themselves capable of taking a cub. Indeed Ahadi had had to rescue their son, Mufasa, then not even three months old, from an opportunist hyena attack. He had had to cut down the bold hyena female as she tried to drag off the helpless cub. There was no time for reason and argument. The hyena had only released Mufasa; Ahadi and Akase's first cub; with her last breath. Mufasa was to remember that incident for the rest of his life as one of his first and most enduring memories. The hyenas too, would prove to be slow to forget.

Scar though had no fear of hyenas; indeed he had hardly any fear of anything. His mother kept on telling him that he had nothing to be afraid of while she was around to protect him, and protect him she did. However her method of protecting Scar from the hyenas was unorthodox for lions to say the least. She followed a mother with three pups, a female and two males, back to her lair one day and cornered them. Immue did not kill them, she had no need. Indeed she wanted them to stay very much alive, for the time being at least. Immue struck a simple deal with them: they would leave her son alone and Immue would leave them alone.

Immue told the hyena that her offer extended to all of the pack. They were free to harass any of the other lions, but touch her little Scar and they would all die at Immue's paws, regardless of the fact that hyenas were at best unpalatable and at worst inedible.

It was quickly noted by Ahadi and his new personal assistant, Zazu, that the hyenas seemed to act most courteously to Scar, sometimes even verging on uneasy friendliness. Zazu found this to be: "Most odd, Sire." Immue did not reveal to anyone what she had done, but it certainly protected the small and weak Scar until he was big enough to fight back for himself; and in time he began to respond in kind to the hyenas' occasional, "Hello Scar."

In the heavy heat, Ahadi sat and looked around. All around his great paws were definite signs that a lion cub and monkey, presumably the mysterious but friendly Rafiki, had recently been at this spot. Rafiki was something of an oddity. He had wandered over to Ahadi one morning, totally unafraid of the great lion, and tapped him gently on the head with some kind of stick.

"Eh? Anybody at home?"

"What are you?" asked Ahadi somewhat distractedly, wondering what this monkey might taste like.

"Lunch?" the grey-blue ape said as he peered, fascinated, into Ahadi's flowing mane. For a moment Ahadi was at a loss, then he burst out laughing as the monkey started to pick into his mane for ticks and other more juicy insects.

"No," Ahadi managed to get out between great mouthfuls of laughter, "no, no, what kind of animal are you? Hey, don't tickle!"

"What? Like this you mean?" said the ape jovially as he reached behind the king's ears. "Yes, like that... I'm Rafiki, the mandrill."

"Get off!" Ahadi rolled over on to his left side as he laughed, waving all four of his paws in the air, barely missing the mandrill who kept on scratching the great lion's ear.

"No, no. Much too much fun... Who are you?"

"That would be Ahadi, king of the Pridelands," said a smooth and gentle voice from behind Rafiki, "and you're messing up his mane. I spent ages sorting it out this morning."

Ahadi jumped up, dumping Rafiki in the dust beneath his paws. He shook himself, filling the air with a cloud of choking dust.

"Hey, watch it, what are you doing covering me in that stuff." The lioness rushed forwards and tussled Ahadi, the pair ending up rolling together in the dust as Rafiki looked on.

"King eh? Well, now you don't look much like a king to me." Rafiki moved his head to one side then the other trying to work out which bit of lion was which, pulling back suddenly as a tail swished past within an inch of his nose.

"Keep out of this, Rifaaka; whoever you are. Hey Akase, that hurt!" shouted Ahadi as he again found himself rolled over and under his playful mate.

Rafiki decided that enough was enough. The moment had come to separate these two overgrown cubs with a combined weight enough to crush him several times over. He jumped around to the head end of the squirming pile, held up one of his hands to a lion's face and shouted: "STOP!" He felt the moist warm breath of the male on his palm as he looked into his eyes.

Ahadi closed both eyes and shied away, "Hey, don't do that!"

"Yeah, stop that. Never look into the eyes of the king," said Akase as she let her hindquarters slide to the ground from her mate's back.

"The king eh? Well now, do you live in the cave on the rock? No. Have you been presented? No. Do you behave in a dignified way befitting the king? No. So what gives you the right to be called king eh?" Rafiki ran back hurriedly to collect his stick as Ahadi lay looking puzzled, "And the name's Rafiki." Rafiki jumped back and, holding the middle of the staff tightly in his right hand, swung it at the unsuspecting lion's head. It made contact firmly. Akase jumped at Rafiki, her claws fully extended. She bowled Rafiki over onto the dust, raising her left forepaw to strike.

"Oowww! Hey, cut it out you two," shouted Ahadi.

"My pleasure dear," Akase said as she brought down her forepaw onto Rafiki's neck. It struck something hard that shot up painfully into her foreleg, just below the knee, as she felt herself overbalance and fall onto her left side.

"Oh dear, can't see too well close up I see," said Rafiki as he picked himself up from the dust where Akase had pinned him. "It's best not to hit my stick. You see - it can hit back." He rubbed his side where the wooden staff had pivoted as Akase struck it, the bruise was already painful.

Akase lay licking her leg where a few drops of blood had begun to well up. Ahadi stood up flinching from half-inch deep cuts from Akase's claws. For a moment he blinked uncertainly then dropped back down again as the top of his head began to throb.

Rafiki bent down to inspect Akase's leg. "I told you to stop. Now then let's Rafiki have a look at that."

"I don't understand. Why don't you run away?" asked Akase as Rafiki gently pushed her nose away from the wound.

"Because you are hurt, and you are with cub."

"What?" blurted Ahadi with cub-like eyes. "How?"

"You don't know?" responded Rafiki as he inspected the lioness, gently holding her leg, "Oh dear, there is more to teach you than I thought."

~oOOo~

In time Ahadi, and the lionesses he had brought with him from the far off marsh lands, came to trust Rafiki and to accept him as a sort of occasional cub. They followed his advice and soon moved into the cave on the towering rock overlooking the plain. It caught the morning sun and its hard surface warmed rapidly in the early light. The cave was never cold despite its solid rock walls. Indeed it could become stiflingly warm, even unbearably hot. However, by late morning the ledges and promontory of the rock became pleasantly shady, allowing the lions to slip outside where they could doze safely in the open and, if they so desired, watch the astonishing variety of herd animals grazing steadily and peacefully across the plains below.

Not long after the pride had moved in, Ahadi was dozing idly in the cave one morning at dawn when Akase rushed in and prodded him with her cool nose.

"Wake up, come on, wake up!" Ahadi, half roused from a rather odd dream about warthogs and meerkats, peered up, hoping that whatever had woken him would go away and leave him to catch the warthog. Akase prodded him again. "Up you get, come on. You've got to see this!"

"Wha... see what? Come on, don't you know it's still dark."

"No it's not. Now get up - up, up, up."

"Oh Akase! Not that at this time of the day. Let a poor lion rest!" She stepped lightly round to his open side and forced a forepaw under his flank, pushing out her claws. "Hey, that hurts!" Ahadi drew up to escape the bony lump under his ribs, "What's so great about today? Why can't I sleep?"

"Are you the king?" Akase asked knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Sure, now let the king sleep."

"I know you're the king, but they don't know yet," said his mate insistently.

Ahadi open his eyes fully and looked into the gloom of the cave. "Who?" They were, unusually for dawn, alone. "There's no one here."

"There is: them – outside," said Akase forcefully, "come on, you've got to see this." She padded away towards the bright entrance. Ahadi forced himself up, muttering something about listening to his mother, and walked stiffly after her, yawning loudly. There seemed to be something different about the rock that morning, the air was filled with tangible expectancy.

Akase, her sides full with their cub, stepped to one side. Ahadi crossed the threshold of the cave and out into the full force of the dawn sun. Before him stood a bright blue bird which stretched out its wings and, in a gesture Ahadi had never seen before, bowed deeply before him. Ahadi started and drew back, uncertain as to who or what this might be. From one side, Rafiki stepped up to him, his stick held high, and put his free arm over the great lion's shoulders, burying it deep in his mane.

"Don't worry, that's Zazu. You can get to know him later," said the mandrill as the hornbill held himself low before the lion as if waiting for something.

"Err - thank you, er... Zazu is it?"

"At your service, sire," replied the bird, rising to look at his king. "Anything that you want, I will give to you. I am the king's most loyal - and useful - servant."

Rafiki flapped at Zazu dismissively with his free hand. "Pappbh! It is time." Rafiki led Ahadi, blinking in the sun, away from Zazu, who glowered at the mandrill as they drew away.

The mandrill and lion walked steadily across the still cool rock and on up to the end of the promontory. "I can't lift you, you had better stand up straight and roar loudly instead," he confided, whispering into the king's ear. Ahadi took one look beyond the rock edge and on to the plain. He felt unsteady and rocked slightly side to side. "It's ok, I have got you."

Assembled as far as Ahadi's half open eyes could see were more animals of more species than he had ever seen and still more that he had never seen. His instinct told him to turn and run back to the cave, hoping he would wake there to find that the day was just like any other. Rafiki's steadying arm around him told him that this was all too real.

"Help me Rafiki, what am I supposed to do?" His voice was unsteady and wavering, his eyes turned from the crowds below to look at Rafiki pleadingly.

"Just remember who you are. You are the king of the Pridelands are you not?"

"Do I have to be?" Ahadi replied doubtfully.

"Too late, all you have to do is roar and they'll all go away, but make it good. They are expecting a king not a cub."

"Just one roar, and then they'll go away, is that it?"

"Yes... it is time." Rafiki drew his arm back from Ahadi, stepping back to leave him alone at the tip of the rock. Ahadi tried to forget the assembled animals waiting below him. For a moment he thought again that he could not go through with it. He closed his eyes and felt the warm rays of the sun on his forehead. He threw his head up and opened his eyes to the full force of the dawn, the bright light blotting out everything as he drew in the cold air of the morning and roared out over the plain. As he finished he heard the faint echoes of his roar die away, to be followed by the loudest sound he had ever heard: the entire population of the Pridelands erupted into voice together to proclaim him as their king. As the sound wrapped around Ahadi he felt his fear drop away and he raised his head high and let himself roar again; just for the sheer pleasure of it all.

He was now truly king of the Pridelands. He made a mental note to forgive Akase for waking him so early: she had been right: this really was worth seeing...


	3. New Lives

**_New Lives_**

The rock where the pride now lived and where Ahadi had been presented became known as Priderock, partly as it was the home of the pride, and partly as it was Ahadi's first pride and joy. Later this pride was replaced when his first cub with his mate Akase was born. This cub, a male, was not the first to be born on the Pridelands. That honour fall to a female, named Sarabi by her mother Narala, a couple of months before. She had two sisters but Sarabi was the special one as she was the first.

Sarabi's birth had been surrounded by speculation and rumour. She certainly did not look much like Ahadi, who vigorously insisted that he was her father. Her dark fur was neither like Ahadi's golden coat nor her mother's pale sand. Then there were her dark brown, almost black, ear rim marks and the smooth flow of her nose that gave her a dignified look even as a young cub. Sarabi carried her name well; she was something of a mirage. Her origins were forever shrouded in mystery and intrigue, even from herself. It was not until the birth of Mufasa that the rumours finally died down. Now the other lionesses had something new to talk about.

A week later Immue, a shady lioness, barely part of the pride, bore a male cub in great secrecy, the fifth cub to be born on the Pridelands. He was small and for a time seemed very likely to die. Immue kept him hidden from all, especially his father Ahadi, for well over six weeks.

She was seen lurking around the pride and from time to time was seen hunting alone. She never ventured close to Priderock and no one ever found out where she kept her cub hidden, no one even knew if it was a son or a daughter until Immue lead him up to the rock at dawn. Ahadi greeted her respectfully. The two month old Mufasa rocked unsteadily up to his father's side to stare at his new half-brother.

"This is Scar," Immue said without being asked. "If anyone harms him they'll have me to answer to, do you hear?"

There were murmurs and whispers all around her; one caught her ear: "However did he get that wound?" Immue did not dignify the comment with a reply; instead she simply picked up the wide-eyed Scar between her teeth and carried him up to the flat of the rock and lay down, placing him by her side.

The cub stared out from the rock as the lionesses crowded round to inspect him. They quickly saw that the scar, seemingly a gash over the lids of his left eye that stood out boldly against the almost black hair that surrounded his eyes, was actually a hairless band of smooth flesh quite unlike the rough mark left by an injury. It turned out that Immue had given him the name in the heat of the birth, as parents often do with new-borns: names such as Fluffy, Giggles or Squirm; intending to give him something more fitting later. She had simply never got round to finding another name for her little Scar.

Scar's conception, as had been suspected of Sarabi, was shrouded in speculation. He was a son of Ahadi, at least Ahadi said so, and then, he said that about Sarabi too, despite evidence to the contrary. Only the two mothers knew for sure. That much was known by all the lions on Priderock. What was less well known was that they each knew the truth about the others cubs.

Immue had only been with the pride for a little over three months, for most of which she had been with cub by Ahadi. Before that she had scratched out an existence as a lone and lonely lioness who had failed to join any of the many prides she had encountered.

Her hold in the Pridelands pride was tenuous at best. Many of the lionesses could not understand why Ahadi and Akase had accepted her, let alone honoured her with his cub. Ahadi made a big fuss of treating Scar as his son and tried to treat him just as he did Mufasa. Both were brought up as full brothers, at least as far as Immue would allow.

Immue kept Scar very close and would not tolerate any interference with what she felt was her right and duty in raising her son. No one quite understood what was going on. Immue had spent years alone and now treated any inquiry, no matter how friendly, as an intrusion. She would never talk about it and would tell anyone who asked to "go and stick your nose into someone else's business, my dear."

Those years of isolation had started when she had been released back into the wild after four blissful years as little more than an overgrown house cat. She could not remember her natural mother, she had always regarded her owner as her mother, and even now it was her that she dreamed of in the few moments that she allowed herself to sleep.

Her lonely years had ended when she happened across a lioness alone with a dark brown, somewhat elderly lion with a full but well-worn mane that was streaked black over his shoulders. His ears were fully black and blended into his mane. There was no doubt about what they were doing and no doubt that they would not have tolerated Immue's presence had they known she was there.

Immue recognised neither the lion nor the lioness. She supposed that he was one of the long-deposed pride males that roamed around the savannah taking whatever opportunity came their way. Opportunity had come his way in the beautiful form of a well-built, sleek lioness who, when not otherwise engaged, would prowl with a rare grace. Immue watched them for some hours, the pair not roaming more than a hundred metres from the spot where she had first seen them.

Later, a little after sunset, she left the couple unseen by their eyes which were only for each other, and began to wander alone once more. She felt an emptiness and hunger that even the fattest of warthogs would not satisfy.

She knew that there was little chance of it being sated. She knew she had little chance of joining a pride and bringing up cubs of her own. She felt herself destined to wander over the ridges and valleys of the uplands and never to feel the heat of a lion's breath on her back or the comfort of a cub nuzzling for her milk.

She tried to sleep, but the image of the lioness as the fatherly lion had taken her held her ever close to wakefulness. She lay in the open, in grass barely tall enough to hide her. She paid no heed to her safety. As she dozed fitfully she failed to notice that she too was being watched for a time. Had she known she would not have slept at all; had she known she would have taken her chance then and there; had she known that her life was about to change she would have seen the lion who crept close, so close that he could have reached out and licked her, so close that he could smell the scents that told of her hunger. She rose out of her dream and opened her eyes a little.

"Err, excuse me, but have you seen Narala?"

She lifted her head and struggled one eye open and focused it on the voice. It was too close to see clearly but she felt the warmth and moisture of breath that had clearly eaten recently.

"Wh..." she tried to open both eyes and focused again in vain. "What? My dear, who's Narala?"

"Ah..." The voice carried warmth and strength and felt friendly and engaging. "You're not who I thought you were." The voice changed, growing slightly tense as its owner backed away hurriedly. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. Must run," he called urgently as he turned away, "I gotta find Narala."

"No, don't go. Maybe I've..." but it was too late. The lion had already drawn out a couple of lengths between them. She saw again the couple in her mind, but now she saw that the lioness was herself, and the lion kept on calling her name, over and over as he nipped her scruff with his worn and browned teeth: "Narala, oh Narala. It's you Narala, it's you, you."

"No, No, NO! NO!" Immue roared, the running lion stopped instantly and turned to face her holding his head barely above his shoulders, his ears held back and his eyes forward as he tried to fight the voice of his mother that rang through his head. "NO!" Immue roared again at the vision. "It's not Narala, it's Immue. You have to know it's me!"

"You do know her..."

"You have to know it's me! It's me: Immue."

"Yes, now I know you are, err, Immue, but where's Narala? I must find Narala." His voice lost power as spoke, it tailed off to leave him little more than a cub. "I must find Narala. The pride expects me..." he could not finish and lay down and frantically swished his tail, while his ears remained held flat on his head. He closed his eyes and shook his head desperately as if to rid himself of a host of painful biting flies. Immue saw his pain but did not run to his side to comfort him but stood for a moment and watched this pathetic cub of a lion. He would never be a king she thought, he would never even be worth talking to. He could never be the father of her cubs.

Immue's curiosity drove her to reconsider. "Pride? Your pride? You - you have a pride?" The lion said nothing but carried on ignoring her, he was almost crying. No, he _was_ crying. "Did you say you had a pride?" she insisted, regardless of his vulnerable state. He sniffed and raised his eyes to her without lifting his head.

"I had a pride: once."

"Oh, I thought you said the pride expects you to... to what, my dear?" She said 'my dear' but it had little meaning, this cub had little enough endearing features, and he certainly was not Immue's in any sense, except, she now realised, he was in her power. "Oh, my dear, you mean that... Narala was meant to be yours?"

He picked up his head suddenly, his ears rising with it. "So you do know her. Why didn't you say? Why?"

"So how exactly was she 'yours'? Hmmm?" Immue was warming to the intrigue.

"I..." he tried to look away but his mother's voice forbade him, "I, she, we, well..."

"Come now, let Immue hear it, yes, yes?"

"She and I were - 'together'."

"'Together'?" Immue thought for a moment then the truth fell upon her - this was not just a cub, this was a big cub and big enough to be with a lioness. "Oh you mean you were mating with her. Oh yes, yes, yes!"

"We still are when I find her."

"Oh, my dear, I don't know if I should be the one to tell you this." Immue fell silent, knowing the lion would not be able to resist her invitation. For a moment he seemed likely to prove her wrong.

"Tell me what?" He got up and walked very slowly towards Immue. She sat back, seemingly content to let him flounder. "Well, what is it?"

"My dear, my dear, you should find out for yourself. I mean this is not a thing you want to hear from a stranger. No, no, indeed no." Immue shook her head forcefully. Her tail remained straight behind her, the tip bent off a little to one side. The young lion, looking a lot older now he had regained most of his composure, drew closer.

Immue felt a strange force flowing in her that set her tail tip twitching erratically. She was not sure whether she wanted this feeling or not, though it grew strongly as he approached. She resisted its call and remained still. However much she liked these feelings she liked the power she had over him much more. He came within a length of her and sniffed at her.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? How do you know Narala and what do you know about her?"

"Well, you seem to know I'm Immue and I'm not doing anything. It's your Narala who's doing it, hmmm?" She raised her head as she finished emphasising that she knew more, much more. "And anyway my dear, shouldn't you be telling me something about you. Yes, yes, yes that would be best - yes?"

The lion paused, and realising he was not going to get anything more out of Immue he decided to tell her everything. That was to prove the costliest mistake of his life.


	4. Wandering

**_Wandering_**

All that mattered to Ahadi was to find the lost Narala. However, she wasn't so much lost as bored.

"My name is Ahadi - and yes I was with Narala but she… wandered off."

"Oh my dear, that can't be right surely? Lionesses don't just 'wander off' with a lion to… attend to them."

"Well OK, so maybe I wasn't as 'attentive' as I might have been. She's very nice and all that but..." Ahadi felt embarrassed, but now he had duties to his pride to fulfil, he felt he had to rise above that. He rose straight into Immue's waiting trap. "...but I love Akase you see. I have to mate all the lionesses but I only love Akase, she's the one I really care about."

"Oh, how awful. I'm so, so, so sorry. Is there anything I can do, anything at all?" She continued in silent thought, 'oh... he is such a dear little cub.'

"You can tell me what you know. I'd do anything to get her back."

"Oh, really? Anything? Well now, let me see. Hmmm… oh yes, I did see her; but she wasn't alone."

"Really? The other lionesses must have found her. I'm done for; you know how they'll talk. I'll never be able to hold my tail up again. Akase will have me for breakfast."

"Oh my dear, no, no, no it's not like that at all."

"It's not? Good. For a moment I thought I was in trouble." Ahadi lifted his head up and for a second looked as though he really could lead a pride.

"No, no, no, she's with another lion."

Ahadi could not believe what he was hearing, not only had Narala walked off on him but she had gone with another lion.

"At least she's not mating him," he thought doubtfully. The situation could hardly be worse.

"Oh yes, yes, she's really with this lion. If you see what I mean."

"You mean she walks out from under me and straight under another lion?"

"Well, my dear, you must have been _very_ inattentive. What did you do?"

"I..." Ahadi drew his head away and mumbled something into the night.

"Oh my dear, I couldn't quite hear that. Now say it again, a little louder just for me. Yes, yes?"

"I... fell asleep."

"What? On her?" Immue laughed gently. Inside she prepared herself for the pounce on her prey.

"No - NO! We weren't actually... no, I just dozed off and she must have..."

"...Wandered off. Yes you said; no need to repeat yourself. That's not so bad. You felt tired yes, yes?"

"Yes, yes. But I brought all these lionesses out from the marsh-lands. They look to me as their lion."

"Well yes. Of course."

"Akase calls me her king for standing up to her father. I can't go back and say 'I fell asleep on Narala.' I'll never be able to really be her king now. The pride would never think I'm a real lion. Lions don't fall asleep with lionesses. Do they?"

Though she was not going to admit it, Immue did not really know. Certainly the old lion had looked anything but asleep.

"Well now, you don't have to tell them my dear."

"I don't? But surely they'll find out from Narala."

"Oh my dear, I don't think so."

Ahadi narrowed his eyes probingly. "Why not?"

"Yes, yes, yes. You see…" Immue smiled knowingly at Ahadi. "…I know that you'll tell all the lionesses that you are the father of Narala's cubs."

"Why should they believe me?"

"Because I will tell them it is true. Yes, yes, indeed I will tell them."

"But you're not a member of my pride. They'll not listen to you."

"My dear, didn't you say you'd do anything? Hmmm?"

"Yes, well I..." Ahadi was beginning to suspect something big was coming.

"Well, you did, and what I want… well what I want is to be a full member of your pride."

"Ah... a member of my pride. You mean like Narala?"

"Oh yes, just like Narala, only..." Immue teased him mercilessly, "...only I won't let you fall asleep. No, no, no..."

"If I do this, what will you tell all the others?"

Immue thought for a moment, raised a forepaw and, extending one claw, touched her chin gently.

"Hmmm, let me see... Oh yes, that's simply too easy: I'll just say she's a trouble maker." Then she added, accompanied by a vaguely waved forepaw, "...or something."

"Hmmm," Ahadi mused doubtfully, "Well, that wouldn't be far from the truth. I mean she always wants to be my queen. She'd take my Akase's place any time if she could. OK, I'll promise."

"Well my dear, it seems your problem is solved, is it not? Yes? Now all we have to do is find your Narala and makes sure she doesn't cause any more trouble. Yes my dear?" Once Ahadi had turned his back, Immue went on with a slight chuckle under her breath, "Simply too easy my dear, yes, yes, yes."

~oOOo~

The pride had a shock when Ahadi finally walked in, his tail held high, followed by a strangely subdued Narala and an eerily quiet stranger.

Immue never talked about her arrival in the pride. Nor did Narala ever told about the days when she was with Ahadi. No one asked her as they knew such times were private.

Soon Akase took back possession of her great love. A week or so later Immue's time came and Ahadi, as he had promised and as busy and tired as he was, responded to her demands and made her a very full member of his pride.

In time, after the pride had arrived in what quickly became known as the Pridelands, Narala's cubs were born, all female; ranging in colour from dark sand to almost hazel brown with delicate spots of only slightly darker brown - one even had dark marks on the rim of her ears. She inherited her mother's powerful yet sleek build and grew day by day to move with grace and elegance. Ahadi made it known that despite their appearance they were indeed his cubs and were to be treated just like all his cubs. This was accepted as, of course, all the cubs in the pride were to be Ahadi's….

~oOOo~

Ahadi looked around for any signs of Scar. He could see two sets of tracks - one lion, the other, in simple pairs as of a biped - distinct and clear, leading away; the depth increasing and the stride extending as the monkey and cub had run off. That would be the best way: to follow and hopefully catch up with Scar and Rafiki.

Ahadi knew that Rafiki would take care of Scar. His fears of earlier now subsided. The only problem was who was looking after Rafiki? It seemed, thanks in no small part to his ceremonial stick which he carried at nearly times, that Rafiki could look after himself well enough but would that be enough to keep the pair safe from hyenas? Then again, Scar seemed to act as a deterrent to the pack. One, the young and particularly troublesome female, Shenzi, had even been seen talking to the cub on vaguely friendly terms. Ahadi had tried to get to the bottom of whatever had been going on but had merely ended up with a set of scratches on his hind legs that made sitting uncomfortable for a time.

The hyenas hunted the Pridelands when they could of course, and from time to time the ever present tension between lion and hyena flared into violent bloodshed. One night a particularly bitter argument had erupted over a hartebeest carcass Ahadi was guarding. He had stood his ground until overwhelming pressure of numbers had forced him to release the kill. It didn't end there however, and Ahadi found himself surrounded; the hyenas closing in relentlessly. Akase and another of the lionesses, Falasha, arrived just in time, with flying claw and ripping teeth, to break the circle of hyena. A couple of hyena had been killed in the ensuing bloody brawl. One of whom, apparently, had been Shenzi's mother.

Ahadi pushed aside the memories of the hyenas and broke into a run, his pads landing alongside the prints of his son. It was not long before he entered a thicket, slowing to a steady and cautious walk through trees that could hide almost any animal.

This was leopard country and Ahadi was taking no chances. He looked to both sides as his paws fell rhythmically on the thicket floor. Ahead he thought he heard a sound, a voice... a mandrill's voice, followed unmistakably by Scar's:

"You don't like Zazu much, do you?"

"Zazu? Well, he's all right. He is rather nosy eh? You know."

'All right Rafiki,' thought Ahadi as he approached unseen from downwind, 'that's enough of that.'

"But he thought I was still Scar, still a lion cub."

"What? No? You are a mandrill. Listen, you do trust Rafiki?"

"Yeah, well, Dad does so I guess I should too but… sometimes it's hard."

"Yes, it can be hard to trust."

Ahadi padded quietly into the pair's field of view.

"See, now do you trust him?" Rafiki said quietly into the cub's ear. Scar did not answer, he just shrank down fearfully realising that Zazu must have found his father and sent him here to collect him and take him back to Priderock.

"Well now Rafiki. Who's your fine mandrill friend? I've not seen him on the Pridelands before?"

Scar lifted his head up in surprise.

"He is my brother, Makedde. He is visiting me."

"Your brother? Well now, Makedde, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Rafiki whispered into Scar's ear, "Better say hello to the king, Makedde. He's a very nice lion when you get to know him."

"Your majesty, I..." but Scar could not finish, after a few moments Ahadi broke the tension.

"Don't worry Makedde, we can talk some more later. I'd best be getting back now. Why don't you two come with me, then you can tell me all about yourself and how Rafiki managed to keep so quiet about you for all this time."

Scar looked to Rafiki who held his staff out in the direction of Priderock and nodded gently. Scar lead off. Ahadi stepped forward to his side smiling. Rafiki fell in behind the father and son.

On the way back they chatted about the weather and mandrill's favourite foods and the difficulties of getting really fresh bananas.

Rafiki, never saw his cousin again.


	5. Calling the Stars from the Sky

**_Calling the Stars from the Sky_**

On the flat, sun-warmed boulders below Priderock in the heat of the late afternoon all was quiet. Akase lay relaxed as she waited for Ahadi's return, hopefully with the wandering Scar, hopefully before Immue arrived. Another young lioness, Falasha, lay nearby grooming herself lazily, paying particular attention to her left forepaw, which was still a little sore after receiving a cut just above the pads whilst out hunting. She slurped noisily as she moistened the wound then ran her grating tongue along the hardened skin.

The little Mufasa played nearby, pouncing at insects, grasshoppers mainly, in the grass a short way off. He was totally engrossed in catching them, only to release them soon after, waiting a few moments before pouncing again. Akase knew that he would be out of harm's way for a while longer.

All was as it always was and the lionesses, the pride, or those who were not out on the plains, were at peace.

Akase was growing restless and hungry as the heat of the day began to wear off when Immue slunk in silently. She came straight up to Akase and said in a tense tone: "All right, where is he?"

Akase tried to stall Immue in case Ahadi had just arrived, "Who, Immue?"

"You know very well who, don't give me that 'innocent' look. Where's my son?" All traces of her normal veneer of politeness were gone.

"Your son? Oh you mean Scar. Well now, he's around. Err, Mufasa?"

The cub drew up from his pounce-ready crouch and answered his mother. "Yeah Mum, what's up?"

"Mufasa dear, do you know where Scar is?"

"Yes, you pathetic furball, where's my son?"

Akase snapped at Immue, clenching her teeth, "Now that's enough," and giving a low, rumbling growl that was intended to signify: "Back off!"

"Well, now if it isn't the 'Queen'? I'm just as much Ahadi's mate as you are! And my son is going to be the next king, not that runt!"

Akase pushed her forequarters up from the rock, tensing her shoulders and holding her snarl, she growled again; louder so that the nearby Falasha heard clearly. "Scar'll never be king while I am alive! And where have you been today?"

Immue refused to back down and stood her ground proudly with her tail high. "I don't have to tell you anything. Ha, call yourself a Queen?"

"You do if you've been hunting and made a kill." Akase growled again, lower and less insistent, and eased her hindquarters from the rock to stand full-square in front of Immue. Akase's bulk was much greater than that of the relatively slightly built lioness Immue. If blows were to have to be exchanged then Akase would be sure to prevail.

Still Immue kept up her defiance. "I've not killed today. I may have been hunting, but that's not a crime is it? Or does the Queen make the rules around here?"

The time was close when Akase would be forced to act or admit humiliating defeat to Immue. Akase was not known for being aggressive and this clear and public challenge to her standing put her in a difficult and dangerous position. She looked intently into Immue's eyes for a few second; all the while keeping up a continuous rasping growling.

Then she spoke again. "If you haven't killed then why is there blood on your cheek?" Her growl rose as she finished, she lunged at Immue as a final attempt to assert her authority as the senior lioness. Immue was surprised by the sudden rush and despite her previous show of defiance was not going to wait around to exchange blows. She turned in the face of Akase's lightning burst of power and ran as fast as she could, her tail flailing wildly as she bounded away.

Akase slowed and stopped after only a few paces, her sides heaving. She roared after the escaping Immue. She felt relieved that Immue had been selfish with her kill, giving her a way to force the stand-off. She felt even more relieved when, a few minutes later, Ahadi finally returned with Scar and Rafiki.

"Oh thank the stars you've found him." She turned to the cub. "And where have you been? Don't you know it's dangerous out there? There's all sorts of animals that would like to take a young cub like you?"

"Hmmm, you have no idea," replied Scar sarcastically.

"What? Now then I'll have none of that. If you were my cub I'd make sure you felt the back of my paw for that. So, where have you been?" Akase demanded, half expecting some retort or other, she was not disappointed.

"Well, I'm not your cub. You're not my mother. She says what I can do, not you!" Scar turned away from Akase. He made the mistake, however, of turning towards Ahadi.

"But I _am_ your father! Now, that's no way to talk to a lioness who cares about you. You had better say you're sorry or you'll not share a kill for two whole days." Scar stayed facing Ahadi but looked out to one side, across the plain. "Do you hear me?" Ahadi raised his left forepaw, not to strike Scar, but merely to warn him that he could do so if he felt the need.

Scar mumbled under his breath as he turned back to Akase, "Temper, temper." For a moment he refused to meet her gaze, then he raised his head and with all the conviction he could muster he said: "I'm sorry Akase."

Akase saw Scar's expression carried a hint of remorse about it and smiled gently in reply. "That's ok, but I do need to know where you went. I have to be able to tell your mother all about it you know. She cares about you very much."

Scar felt a little guilty at this. He hadn't realised his mother could be hurt through one of his little adventures.

"Well I..." Scar started, but Rafiki stepped in and spared him from any further awkwardness.

"He was with me all afternoon. We talked. He was a good little mandrill."

"Hmmm?" Scar felt a little embarrassed and foolish to have believed that Rafiki had really turned him into a mandrill, but he was certainly not going to admit that to Akase and his father, and certainly not Mufasa who was standing a few lengths away.

"Hmmm indeed Scar. I hear you were a very good mandrill, do you want a banana?" Scar turned away and dropped his head close to the ground in shame. "Oh, come on young'un," but Scar did not 'come on', instead he sank to the ground in front of Akase.

"Ahadi, what did you say that for?" glared Akase in a whisper over Scar, then lifting her voice, she bent down to lick the top of Scar's head. "Up you get, I think you need to go home to your mother. Come on, I'll take you." Scar looked up and smiled uncertainly at Akase. She looked reassuringly down at him. She offered him a paw, placing it gently by his side to hold as he got unsteadily to his paws. She led him away, pausing only to throw a comment on the breeze to Ahadi: "You know young Scar; you just can't trust lions, can you?"

~oOOo~

"...I see you brought him back then. You had him hidden didn't you?" Immue was impatient and did not wait for Akase's reply. "Well, give him here and be on your way. Come on - I haven't got all day my dear."

Immue stood on the ledge outside the cool cavern on the northern face of Priderock she called home. The cavern was not enclosed; at the far end, no more than ten metres from the north entrance, the floor sloped up to a narrow rock platform reachable from either side only by a powerful leap. "Come here my little one."

Scar did not wait for Akase to respond to his mother. Instead he leapt to his mother and threaded his way among her forepaws, standing, somewhat crouched, with the top of his head rubbing her warm, dark underfur.

Akase realised that her carefully prepared speech was not going to help and so she consigned it to her memory, never to be heard. She turned, unsmiling and resigned, and walked back the way she had come; to her own cub, Mufasa, who would be waiting for his evening feed.

Scar fed voraciously that evening. Immue lay back and enjoyed the company and intimacy of her only son as the light finally faded to leave the cavern dark and foreboding. She drew the tired cub to her with a forepaw and in time he dozed quietly on her forelegs, pressing his back up to her breast which moved gently with each breath. Scar felt secure and at peace, Immue licked his head and shoulders, not so much because he was dirty, but because she longed for the smell and taste of his young fur.

Scar said little as he wavered in and out of sleep. In ten or more minutes the only words he said clearly were: "I love you mother." In reply she gazed longingly at her cub and, softly and gently at first began to sing words of love for her cub, who was all she he ever had in the world. She sang of how she would protect him, do anything for him: even to call the stars themselves down from the pitch-blue sky.

By the time she had finished Scar was sleeping soundly. Immue, her evening's work done, allowed herself to doze with him. She had eaten well, despite what she had said to Akase earlier that evening, and had no need to hunt that night.


	6. New Era's Eve

**_New Era's Eve_**

The pride settled down over the next few weeks. Immue kept her distance from the rest of the lionesses and for the most part kept the growing Scar close to her. There was no repeat of the incident with Akase.

Ahadi tried as best he might to spend time with both of his sons, Mufasa and Scar, but he felt as though Immue was preventing him from being a real father. Immue never let him see Scar for as long as he felt he needed. They grew more and more apart between each meeting and Mufasa and Scar, half-brothers though they were, rarely played or even saw much of one another. In time it became that when they did meet it was not as brothers nor even as friends but as distant relations who had a blood bond but little else in common. They had become like cousins who had only ever seen each other at family occasions; where there was little chance to get to know each other. Yet Ahadi always told Mufasa that Scar was his only and true brother.

Mufasa often used to ask, "But Dad, when can he come and play?"

Ahadi had no ready response, other than a vague, and, to Mufasa, perplexing: "One day. He'll come one day when he's ready."

To Scar, Ahadi seemed to be more like an uncle than a father, he and his mother lived alone in the draughty cavern. All the time she told him that he would grow up to be her special lion: he would be a king, indeed he would be king of the pride when his father died. Scar liked his father but never grew to love him. Ahadi was a distant figure of respect to Scar; a lion to keep a safe distance from rather than to snuggle up to. Scar could barely even remember his scent. Yet still Ahadi, the king of Priderock, _was_ his father and Scar knew that one day he would follow in his father's great paw prints.

"One day," Ahadi told Scar on one of the rare occasions they had been allowed to be alone together, "You may be the king of a pride you know." Later, when Scar told his mother about the visit, she smiled broadly when she heard those words. She said nothing further on the subject, hustling Scar off, protesting loudly that he wasn't tired, to curl up to sleep in the depths of the cavern.

Ten days later Immue was restlessly lying up, wondering whether to hunt that coming night or to leave it until the next day. She kept on getting up and lying down, trying to find something to help her relax. Scar lay idly to one side teasing one of the mice that lived in the darker cracks in the cavern walls.

Zazu, by now Ahadi's trusted major-domo, alighted on the rock platform and, after a hurried check on his primaries, hopped cautiously into the mouth of the cavern. Immue saw him at once and looked towards him, noticing her son's inattention.

"Scar dear, come on; we have company." Then she spotted the tiny tail poking out from under his left forepaw. "Well dear, if you going to eat it then get on with it and don't play with it."

Zazu gulped nervously.

"Yes, well Madam, I have come with some news from the King."

Scar's ears pricked up and he jumped to his paws in anticipation; the mouse scurried away to the safety of crack in the cavern wall.

"Hey Zazu, is it lunch time?" said Scar hopefully.

"No, young master, it isn't. It's important news."

"Nothing's as important as lunch? Yes mother?"

"Yes, yes... yes Scar. Now let's hear what Zazu has to say shall we?"

"Ahem, yes..." Zazu retreated slightly; afraid that he might find himself unintentionally staying for lunch. "The king has a very important..." he flapped and flew back to the ledge, talking mid-flight, "...announcement to make at sunset. It concerns the young master here." With that he flew off altogether, leaving Immue and Scar to ponder on exactly what this announcement might be.

Immue did not ponder long. She just knew that this was the time when her son, Scar, would be proclaimed as the future king over that overgrown fluff-ball Mufasa. Obviously Scar would make a much better king than any cub of Akase's. After all, Scar had much more of the ruthless determination and refined cunning that all kings need and that would sustain him as ruler of the Pridelands for a very long time indeed.

Sunset drew close; hot and humid. Immue, Scar walking proudly close to her side, threaded her way through the waiting pride. They passed by the young, taut and lithe figure of Sarabi who stood, alert and graceful, waiting for Ahadi to emerge from the cave.

It was not usual for all the pride to be together in such close proximity and the tension began to create friction between some of the lionesses: a swatted paw here, a tail swished there.

The seven month old Sarabi rose above it all and stood calm and self-assured in the red glow of the late sun. She was as serene a lioness as her father had once been a great king. Even in her cub coat, all spots and down-soft fur, it was evident that she was to grow into a unique and very special lioness. Though so far she had shown little inclination to hunt and precious little skill on the few occasions she had tried. Like her coat, there was to be plenty of time for all that to change. Scar however, hardly gave her a second glance and passed by silently, her eyes followed him from her unmoving head.

Immue wove her silent way to the foot of Priderock noting that, if nothing else, Ahadi certainly had a good eye for theatre.

'Why all this? Hmmm,' she thought as she sat and then lay heavily by a flat topped boulder. 'My son deserves the best but this is, well, a little over the top. Yes, yes.' She lay still and waited, barely turning her ears to the tense growls and snarls of a skirmish in the making some way behind her.

The growls suddenly stopped as a shadow passed over the setting sun, and flew down to the flat of Priderock. Zazu's voice was heard, but none could quite catch the distant words or see their speaker. The voice stopped, followed by an almost audible but indignant, "What do you mean they can't hear me?"

Immue's keen hearing picked up the scuffling of folding wings and skittering of avian feet on the hard rock. Zazu's beak appeared over the parapet. "Is this better?" He glanced behind him before turning again to face the pride below. "Ahem... I have to announce King Ahadi wishes to speak to you on a matter of great importance to you all: The future of the Pride. Pray silence for the King." He bowed slowly, turned and walked off slowly, his voice being heard one last time: "There, and I hope that was good enough for you, sire!" Even Sarabi couldn't help giggling just a little.

~oOOo~

Ahadi stood a little in front of the cave entrance, his shadow blackening the rock face behind him. He had been taking lessons from Rafiki and now felt confident enough to face his pride as he felt a true king might. He had carefully prepared a speech; nothing fancy or long, just a few sentences of carefully chosen words; carefully chosen that is, by Rafiki. In the intensity of the rehearsals Ahadi had not taken the time to examine exactly what those words meant.

Zazu turned from the peak of the rock and hopped back as gracefully as he could, he paused for a moment in front of the king, asking with raised eyes: "There, and I hope that was good enough for you, sire!"

Ahadi looked sternly at him for a moment before he felt a sudden emptiness in the pit of his stomach accompanied by the rapidly rising pounding of his heart. He felt he needed to rush off Priderock for a moment but forced himself to stand firm. Rafiki had told him about something that might help in moments such as these. Ahadi forced his chest forward and breathed in deeply, counting to three as slowly as he dared before letting the breath go again. He was beginning to think that Rafiki might occasionally be economical with the truth. Yet still the mandril's voice echoed through his mind: "It is time."

'Yeah, but is it my time? Come on Ahadi, this is it. Time to tell it like it is!' He stepped forward, his foreleg felt soft and rubbery and he wobbled slightly. He looked down; it looked just the same as it had always been. He swung his tail round smartly. Its tip caught his side sharply, making both tail and flank sting. "Oww! That's another of Rafiki's tips I'll try to forget."

He once more considered giving up until he turned his head back and saw Akase with Mufasa standing in front of her looking proudly back to his father. Time seemed to stand still as Ahadi turned to the parapet of the promontory of Priderock and stepped forwards. When he reached it and looked over there was no sound of greeting, no tumultuous cacophony of rejoicing animals as there had at his presentation. Instead nothing but the sunset, the grass and himself, he felt almost as if he were alone. He could pretend to himself that he was standing in front of his pride announcing his son's succession. He felt he could say anything as there was no one there to listen:

"Ah, my friends: my pride. I have called you here this evening to tell you that one day; when I am no longer able to lead you all; I will give the honour, privilege and duties of King of the Pridelands to my son." Ahadi paused to let this sink into his audience. He thought he heard a lioness purr somewhere close by; his foreleg buckled again.

He remembered to remember that he was on his own. "He will however not be alone. He will have someone to be with him and support him, to hunt for him and I hope to love him. He will have..." again Ahadi paused for effect, this time he heard nothing but the silence of the breeze over the grass below, "...someone who surely will one day become a lioness of rare beauty. Indeed if I were five years younger I might... Ahem, yes well…. She, who will one day be the queen of Priderock, is… Sarabi."

A murmur of low voices flowed and rippled through the lionesses below. Ahadi could make no sense of the hushed tones and whispers yet he knew with unwavering certainty that he had somehow said the wrong thing. The murmur grew and formed into a short phrase: "But she's his daughter too!" Rafiki had said that the news would be warmly received. Warm indeed, but Ahadi felt as if the plain below him was on fire, the tongues of the rising flames licking at his fur. Suddenly Sarabi was at his side, there on Priderock, staring at him in disbelief:

"Tell me it's not true?"

Ahadi turned his head to look at her, and saw at once that she was indeed so much more than the cub he knew. She left him as quickly as she had come. He was looking once more at Akase and his very own Mufasa. He turned back to face the crowd below; shaking his head.

"No, no. It's not true. I have lied to you. I have lied to you all." The tumult began to die down. "I have kept something from you, even from my Akase. Sarabi is..." No one said a word. Even Rafiki, sitting on a rock ledge some way off to the south, sat perfectly still with wide staring eyes and ears fixed on the king. "...Not my daughter. She and her sisters are daughters of a once great king of a pride far from here." Akase smiled at her mate in a heady mixture of shock, relief and pride. She had often wondered, secretly when everybody else was asleep, just why Sarabi looked like she did. She also saw the pain on Ahadi's face. Pain that said more to Akase than words could ever do; they told her that he could not take Narala because she was her own older sister.


	7. Priderock

**_Priderock_**

Sarabi stared at her father, high above her on Priderock, with wide staring eyes. She could not take in that she was no longer the lioness she thought she had been, that she was not the daughter of the king, but that she was just the daughter of… an ordinary lion. She turned, and for a moment seemed to her mother to be very likely to cry. With her steadying shoulder to lean into Sarabi managed to hold herself up with just a shiver and a dampening of her eye that only she, and perhaps her mother, could have known about.

Sarabi felt nothing for Mufasa, he was all very well to play with, chase and pounce on, but he was, well, he was a lion not a lioness, they were as different as zebra and crocodile.

"Mom," she said quietly, "do I have to be Mufasa's queen?"

"No, dear, not if you don't want to. You forget that now, there's too much to think about in one day." Try as she might Sarabi could not forget about Mufasa. She looked at Narala and thought about what this other lion had done to her and she could not understand any of it. She vowed never to grow up, never to be a lioness and certainly never to hunt, as that way Mufasa would never want her as his queen.

At the foot of the rock, Immue lay seemingly unmoved by Ahadi's speech. She watched intently as he went on, his tone less formal and his manner less that of a king and more of a father.

"It's true. Sarabi is not my daughter and so she can be the mate of my son, Mufasa, who I intend shall be the next king of Priderock. He will be presented to all the animals when all the arrangements have been made." He paused again, the assembled pride, the whole strength of the Pridelands lay and stood before him. All looked to him as their king and knew that in time they, or their cubs, would look to Mufasa as king.

The falling sun finally set on Ahadi as he stood there on the rock. It was as important a moment as any since the pride's arrival. It ended an unsettled time. After the long hard and dangerous journey from the marsh lands the pride had not been totally sure they were on these lands to stay. Now they knew that this was to be their home for as long as there were cubs to grow into lions. The Pridelands were now truly the lands of Ahadi's pride.

Ahadi bid them all good hunting and retreated back to his family. The pride dispersed. The last to go was the silent Immue, still outwardly lying calm. Scar nuzzled her, calling her to get up. She ignored all her son's attempts to rouse her, she just lay looking at the rock where Ahadi had crushed her hopes and dreams.

Eventually she got up sharply and with little more than, "Come on Scar dear, we have to get home. Yes, yes," she was gone into the night, leaving only four sets of three-inch long parallel scratch marks deep in the earth, stained by a few drops of crimson.

~oOOo~

Ahadi felt that, all things considered, the announcement of Mufasa's betrothal and succession had gone smoothly. As to the betrothal, it was really a matter of there being little choice. Sarabi, or indeed one of her sisters, were the only possible choices as all the rest of the cubs of Mufasa's age had been sired by Ahadi. It had required the truth of Sarabi's parentage to be brought out into the open but there was really no alternative. Rafiki had known that when he had prepared Ahadi's speech, but had evidently forgotten to warn the king.

Immue had thus far remained silent regarding the details of Sarabi's conception. Ahadi had considered that, and told Akase all about it in the privacy of the cave after the announcement. On reflection it mattered little, now his pride leadership was assured. In the early days, when a challenge appeared more likely, though no challenger had even set paw upon the Pridelands, such a revelation could have severely undermined his position as king. Now it was barely more than a colourful incident in his youthful past.

It was the matter of succession that now troubled Ahadi. Rafiki warned him that trouble might lie ahead but could not be precise on how this trouble might present itself. Mufasa's presentation laid just a couple of days away and nothing could be allowed to spoil his son's special moment.

"So Rafiki, why is this taking so long to organise? For me it was all just there at dawn. What's there to do?"

"You think this is easy? Do you? You think I did nothing for your presentation eh? Well I'll tell you this: it took days and days, and all done while you slept. I had to call in quite a few favours for that you know. I have fewer friends now than I used to. I hope it was worth it! You - you don't know the half of what I do for you. You think this place runs itself? Eh?"

"Well, no, I know it doesn't and I know you do a lot and..." Ahadi tried frantically to guess what Rafiki might do but couldn't think of anything before the pause became obvious.

"See! You have no idea do you?"

"I do, I do! It's just that I can't remember it all right now."

"Eh? Come on, you can't hide from Rafiki. You know I know everything that goes on here."

"Really? I thought it was Zazu that knows everything that goes on?"

"What? That little... he doesn't know anything. I'm the one. He is just a pompous little feathered gossip. Eh? What does he know that I don't? Well, come on, tell Rafiki!"

Ahadi thought for a moment then said hopefully: "Well… he says the average age of the seventeen male elephants on the Pridelands is twenty seven years."

"What? What use is that? And what is the average of the females eh?"

"He didn't say," said Ahadi with a shake of his head, sending a few insects flying from his mane. One landed on Rafiki's arm. He nimbly picked it between finger and thumb and, with a moment's smiling inspection, ate it.

"Mmmm. Not so bad." He turned back to Ahadi. "And why did he not tell you? Answer me that?"

"I guess he didn't know."

"Guess? What are you? King or cub? No, I tell you he didn't tell you because you never ask a female elephant her age, and if you do they all say twenty seven. "

"They've forgotten how old they are?"

Rafiki lifted his stick slowly as if preparing to use it.

"No, NO! See how little you know, female elephants don't grow old... they just smell that way!"

"Rafiki! Why you..." Ahadi got up on to his paws quickly. The mandrill was already away and running between the boulders, towards the distant tree-topped ridge that lay between Priderock and his home, the baobab tree. Ahadi ran after him for a few lengths before realising that pursuit was pointless. He sat down and regained his breath and waited for Rafiki to return. 'Kings,' he mused to himself, 'should not chase after their subjects, their subjects should chase after them. It's a good thing no lionesses chase after me. Mufasa on the other paw...' he thought on, '...he may grow up to be worth chasing.'

"What are you thinking now? Don't hold with all that thinking, not for kings anyway." Ahadi was startled out of thought by Rafiki's breath and voice on his cheek. "I tell you that Immue's got to be watched."

"What? Immue? No, she won't tell about Narala and me, not now anyways."

"Oh yes? And what is all this about Narala and you eh? Come on tell Rafiki."

Ahadi lifted a forepaw and pushed his head over theatrically with it. He knew that Rafiki would not let him go until he had spilled the whole colourful truth. A few moments later any passers-by would have been puzzled by the strange and inexplicable sight of a great lion sitting sternly while a seemingly deranged gibbering monkey fell about the lion's forepaws in laughter.

A few hours later Ahadi had all but forgotten Rafiki's warning, for the while at least.

~oOOo~

Any doubts Akase may have had as to Immue's changed nature faded when she brought Scar over to the cave to play with a delighted Mufasa. She was all lightness and said she would do "simply anything" to help Akase. Indeed after a pleasant hour or so she offered to look after Mufasa while Akase took a nap, or went hunting or just wandered round to her old haunts to while away a few hours with her old friends, or her sister, Narala. At first Akase was suspicious but there seemed to be no real reason for Immue to be suspected of anything and so, after many "You simply must have a break my dear, yes, yes, yes," Akase gave in and left Mufasa and Scar playing together as Immue looked on, smiling.

Akase walked off quickly at first, quietly relieved to be able to have a little time to herself. Recently, she had spent all her time with Mufasa or hunting or on some pride matter or other. There was little time for her to stop being Akase, mate to the king of Priderock and mother of the next king, and to be just Akase, the lioness. There were times when, tired and frayed, she would wander back to the cave long after Ahadi had gone to sleep only to wake before he did the next day.

Now she was free; free to roam the plains, free to do anything she wanted. Now though, she found it difficult to know what she actually wanted to do. Once away from the rock, she wandered aimlessly for a while. She tried to remember what it was like to be able to do things on impulse and in the moment, but somehow she just could not remember.

She kept looking back to the rock. She lost sight of Mufasa, and Immue and Scar too. She sat back and watched and waited... still she could not see her son. She began to wonder where they might be and whether she had already strayed too far from home; then she spotted the trio. They were not on the flat of the promontory; they were high up on the rock ledge that led to the top of the rock. Scar was leading Mufasa, with Immue following behind. High up on the rock ledge….

"What are they up to? Why are they going up there?" Akase suddenly felt a cold shiver of fear run down her back. "They could fall off!" She felt the shiver grow to a rush of panic which forced her up to her paws and to a full run. Thoughts of her Mufasa falling to his death from the top of Priderock flashed through her. She could almost see his small body drop from of the eastern face of forbidding rock. He tumbled and screamed helplessly. Immue sat at the top and laughed. His body hit an overhang. Akase heard his back break with an agonising crack before his lifeless body thudded to the rock protrusion below. "NO! Mufasa! NO!"

She rushed up the rocks to where she had seen the body of her son fall... but he was not there. She heard him cry out as he began to fall again. She looked up to where he had hit the stone edge high above her but that wasn't there either. All she saw was Mufasa's head poking over the edge of the top. She barely heard the few faint words that floated down.

"Mufasa my dear, come away from there. We don't want you to fall now, do we? Hmmm? Yes, yes, that's better. Come on my dears, its best we all went down now. I know this has been simply too much fun but all good things must come to an end."

Akase heard moans of protest from Mufasa: "Aww, Immue, but Dad says I'm gonna rule it all."

Followed by Scar's, "Oh goody..."

Akase forced herself to wait at the bottom of the rock, close to the cave entrance where the rock ledge that led up to the top of the Priderock began. As the ledge was narrow, barely ever enough for for a fully grown lioness to turn round, she knew that if she followed them up it would only cause trouble. She heard the distant laughing, happy voices growing stronger, echoing off the rock faces, only to fade again. She wanted only to feel her Mufasa's fur on hers, to feel his breath but she could do little but wait as nearer and nearer came the tick-tick of cubs claws on hard rock. Immue made no sound as she carefully picked her way down the ledge following the cubs.

"Hi Mom! It was great, I showed them everything."

"Come here at once Mufasa. You're not to go up there alone again! Do you hear?"

Mufasa was taken aback. "But I wasn't alone. Scar and his mom were there too!" He ran to his mother and thrust his head against her forelegs. She bent her head down against his and drew in his scent.

"Yes, well, that doesn't change anything, you could have been killed."

"Aw come on mom, do ya think I'd fall off?"

She looked accusingly at Immue. "No Mufasa, I didn't think you would fall."

"You don't think, my dear, that I would push him do you?"

Akase knew that that was exactly what she had thought but also felt that it had been an irrational idea, born out of her tendency to over protect Mufasa. If he was to grow up to be an independent and self-confident lion she knew she had to let go a little and let him experience life for himself. Mufasa had to learn about life as it was, not as Akase would like to present it to him. She shook her head and tried to smile.

"No Immue, I just got worried - you know, as mothers do. I'm just glad you all got back OK. That's all." She nuzzled her son, just to make sure he really was back.

"Yes, yes, yes I see. It's simply too easy for an accident to happen is it not? Don't worry, Mufasa is safe with me, I'll make sure he is treated just as he deserves. Yes, yes, yes. Now, as you're back we had better go. You know: things to do, wildebeest to chase and all that."

"Oh, that's all right Immue. Scar, you can come and play again soon if you like. How about tomorrow?"

"Yeah? Yeah, I'd like that. Mufasa? We could play 'king of the rock'."

"Oh, I'm sorry, we can't make it tomorrow I'm afraid, but how about the day after? Hmmmm?"

"Yeah Scar - bags I'm first." Mufasa held his head as high as he could and tried to look down on Scar. "You can be the commoners."

"Hmmm..." said Scar, "as long as I can be king next."

"Enough of that you two. Now Scar dear, we'll come and see Mufasa again in a couple of days. Yes, yes, yes."

Later that night in the cavern Scar reflected on the afternoon as Immue lay washing herself, as usual.

"Mother? Is Mufasa really going to be king?"

"Who?"

"Mufasa, my brother. You know he's great to play with. He does really awesome things with his tail."

"Oh, Mufasa. Oh, I wouldn't get too friendly with him, Scar dear. After all he won't ever be king. Yes, yes, yes."

"He won't be king? But Dad said..."

"He is very much mistaken. You will be king. You are the only choice."

"But what about Mufasa?" Scar insisted, not yet grasping what his mother really meant.

"What about him? He'll not live to be presented as the next king."

"Why? Is he sick?"

"NO! No, no. We're going to kill him."

"But what's he done?"

"My dear Scar, he didn't do anything," said Immue mildly. Then her voice hardened and she became darkly menacing, "His mistake was being born."


	8. The Waterhole

**_The Waterhole_**

Mufasa lay impatiently swishing his tail. Akase had tried to get him to lie with her but he had refused, waiting for Scar to arrive. Ahadi wandered out of the cave behind. In the afternoon heat was getting unbearable. The sun had long since passed, leaving the flat of the promontory in deep shadow. He flopped down on the heated rock by Akase and leaned over and licked her cheek.

"Now don't start that," she protested, only half seriously, "Immue is bringing Scar over to see Mufasa."

"Oh good," said Ahadi brightly, "She can take Mufasa out for a while. We can be alone."

"Ahadi! Whatever is the king thinking? And what would we do together?"

"Anything you want. Anything at all." Ahadi smiled and then licked her again.

"Really Ahadi! Anyone would think I was in season or something."

"Akase, you're always 'or something' to me."

Akase drew her head back suddenly and looked at her mate through half closed eyes. She lifted a forepaw and batted it gently towards Ahadi who lunged his head forwards and caught her paw gently between his teeth and licked it before releasing it. Akase stared hard at him. It had not hurt at all...

"I'm here Mufasa!" It was Scar's voice. It was shortly followed by a bouncy cub with a springing tail with the dour bulk of a lioness behind.

"Well, here we are. Yes, yes, yes. Oh you two do look good together. I know how pleased you must be to have a lion like that all to yourself my dear."

"Immue, now don't get any ideas."

"Ideas? Me Akase? No, no, no, it's king Ahadi there who's getting the ideas. Isn't that right my dear?"

"Well Immue, I'd like a chance to get some more ideas, you know," said Ahadi hopefully.

"Scar? D'ya wanna go down the water hole? It's just so hot!"

"Now you two, I'll take you only if your Mum and Dad think it's OK."

Mufasa called back over his shoulder as he turned to run off the rock. "Aww, come on Immue! Hey Scar, let's go!" Before anyone could say anything he ran off down the rocks closely followed by Scar. The pair bounding away full of youthful energy.

"Is it all right if they go? They do love playing together, don't they? I'll bring them back safe and sound. I promise."

"I guess we don't have much choice, do we Ahadi … Ahadi?" Ahadi was not really listening as he had already started to rub his mane up against Akase's shoulders. Akase smiled in a way that said "I guess he doesn't mind." Immue smiled too and turned to leave, pausing only to call back as she dropped down from the expanse of the rock, "I'll bring Mufasa back well before sunset. Yes, yes, yes."

Closing his eyes Ahadi said, "Has she gone?" close into Akase's ear as he licked its rim.

"Yes dear, she's gone and she's taken Mufasa with her. We're all alone."

"Are you tired?"

"No?" replied Akase puzzledly.

"Good, let's go in the cave then."

"Ahadi! What are you suggesting?" But Ahadi had already got up and was close to the cave mouth, he looked back and smiled mischievously. She returned smile. She knew exactly what he was suggesting and she didn't need to be asked twice.

As the afternoon wore on the air cooled slowly but the cave on Priderock remained hot and stuffy. Ahadi decided that his son's idea about cooling off in the waterhole sounded very attractive. Akase, who lay contentedly on the cave floor was not too sure, but when she saw her mate bouncing around as if he were their son she decided to join him in an afternoon splash in the muddy water.

"What are we? We're just a pair of cubs."

"Cubs? Akase, we're not cubs any more. But just for now and just for you, I'll pretend I am. Come on, let's go and show Mufasa what playing's really about." Ahadi looked towards Akase as she got up awkwardly as if to make out that she was a great-grandmother rather than barely a mother. She shook her legs saying:

"Look what you did to me."

"Come on Akase, let's go!"

Like his sons before him, he was already gone. Akase ran off after him and caught him on the plain just below Priderock. Together they sprang and ran, looking at each other and laughing together. It was just a few short, beautiful and breathless minutes before they arrived at the water hole.

Scar stood nervously at the edge of the water, looking intently at his mother who was wading in the shallows. Mufasa was nowhere to be seen. Ahadi slowed and stopped as he looked around. Akase sprang up to his side.

"Hey serious king, what's up?" Then she noticed Ahadi's concerned gaze. He did not answer, instead he shouted to Immue.

"Where's Mufasa? I can't see him."

Immue turned her head sharply as if she had been interrupted.

"Oh, hello Ahadi. He was here just a moment ago, wasn't he Scar?"

Scar did not answer. He drew back, too frightened to say anything.

Ahadi asked again with more strength, "Where is my son Immue?"

"He must have just wandered off for a bit. I'm sure he'll be back soon enough. Yes, yes, yes,"

Ahadi and Akase looked at each other and then at Immue. They both saw that the few tiny bubbles popping up around Immue's immersed forepaws. Immue stood so awkwardly and did not move to greet them. It was as if she were standing on something in the water.

The terrible truth hit Ahadi as if Immue had struck him a powerful blow. Now nothing on the Pridelands could hold his rage and strength. He roared shatteringly, sending every bird to the sky and every animal dashing for cover. He shot forwards towards Immue who jumped back and turned, just too late to fully avoid the first blow that Ahadi had ever delivered in true anger. Though his paw fell short, his unsheathed claws raked through her shoulder, opening it over more than two paw's width. She was knocked sideways and onto her back, landing at the water's edge two lengths away.

She splashed out furiously at Ahadi. He pounded through the water towards her. Spray flew up over them, covering the little Scar who cowered at the edge for a few moments before running over to Akase. Before he could reach the safety of his aunt, she lunged out across the water after Immue as she succeeded in filling Ahadi's eyes with enough mud to enable her to scramble from him; leaving him thrashing out wildly in rage and fury at anything that moved, even Akase who was caught on the left flank by his rear claws.

In all the confusion Immue managed to escape the waterhole. When Ahadi's eyes had cleared enough to see, he jumped out of the hole, muddy water running off every part of his coat. He chased her as far as the borders of the Pridelands, over every rock, ridge, log, track, gully and valley, but never quite catching up with her. When she finally leapt the six foot deep narrow gully that marked the Pridelands north-eastern border Ahadi realised that he had lost her.

He resigned himself to never seeing her again. He could never get used to not seeing his son again. After a few moments to catch his breath he dejectedly followed the trail of Immue's fresh blood back to the waterhole.

He finally it reached close to sunset. The water had long since settled and Akase had gone, so had Scar. There was no sign of Mufasa's drowned body, Ahadi was sure he would never see him again. He lay down by the water's edge and for the first time since his mane had come he cried. He had lost his dearest son, and on the eve of his presentation. No one: no lion, or any other animal went close to the waterhole that night until moonset. It was Ahadi's private place.

~oOOo~

All the Pridelands mourned with Ahadi. All except Akase, who once Immue and Ahadi had run off, had the presence of mind to feel around in the mud where Immue had been standing. She felt a soft, still warm furry body. She reached down into the water and lifted it out by what she thought must be the scruff. For a few moments it lay lifelessly in her gentle mouth. Then the body gasped and spluttered. Akase immediately forgot about Immue and Ahadi and carried the barely living Mufasa back to Priderock. Scar trailed a length or two behind, keeping just out of sight; he feared he might never see his mother again.

~oOOo~

When Ahadi returned to Priderock a little before dawn, the first few of the herds, grazing their way across the Pridelands over several days, were beginning to gather for the new king's presentation. Ahadi avoided all of them; he could not bring himself to tell anyone, especially himself, that his son Mufasa was dead. He hoped that they would all simply disappear and leave him alone.

He kept to the shadows as he climbed up to the cave entrance. For a moment he felt that he could not enter and that all he deserved to do was to slip away and die unseen. His world, and with it the future of the Pridelands, had died there in the shallows of the waterhole and Ahadi wished that he could die with it. There was only one reason for him to return, and she was probably inside the cave. He sniffed the still air that filtered from the cave mouth. On it he scented Akase: strong and even now, inviting, and Mufasa and… yes, even Scar. Clearly their scent had lingered on in the cave to haunt him.

'...and what of Scar. If he's still alive I suppose he will be...' but he could not bear to think more of that. He remembered Scar's terrified look by the water's edge. Could she have used Ahadi's own son against Mufasa? 'Scar didn't know what his mother was going to do. How could he? He was just as frightened as we were.' Mufasa's scent became stronger. For a second Ahadi thought that he might be alive after all; he had, after all, not seen the body. 'No, what if he had just run off? What if he's lying asleep in the cave? No... What have I done? Someone help me!'

Ahadi rushed into the cave and there, lying fast asleep where he always slept was Mufasa, at his side, with his head over Mufasa's back lay Scar as fast asleep as his brother. It was a picture of contentment and peace but it hid a tale so dreadful that no one ever spoke of it again. Akase woke, if indeed she had been sleeping, as Ahadi rushed in.

"Where in all the marsh lands have you been?"

"But... but Mufasa's alive! Immue didn't drown him! He's alive!"

Ahadi wanted to wake and play and have his son climb all over him, but Akase stopped him.

"Leave him to sleep. He's had the worst day of his life, so have all of us. Immue nearly succeeded. Mufasa almost died. I fished him out and I..." She paused and closed her eyes, holding, no, fighting back a flood or tears. "He was dead in my mouth. I held my own dead cub... and he fought back death and now sleeps. He is a very special cub. He is our cub Ahadi; he is ours and he's alive… and so is Scar."

Ahadi said nothing and did even less. He no longer wanted to die: he wanted to live, he wanted to roar, he wanted to feel close to Akase, he wanted to live a whole life in just a few moments but he could not. He lay down at Akase's side and, feeling her very soft purr, fell asleep with his head on her stretched out forepaws. It had been a very long night.

He was not allowed to sleep long. He was woken by Rafiki an hour later wanting to know if Mufasa was well enough to cope with the presentation. Panic broke out in the cave as Akase woke Mufasa, waking Scar who panicked thinking he was back in his cavern and shouted out for Immue. Ahadi had to tell his son that his mother would never return to the Pridelands.


	9. Epilogue and Personal Notes

_**Epilogue**_

Scar sat smiling on a rock below the promontory of Priderock as his lionesses dispersed in dismay. From all around came the baying hordes of hyena. The moon shone down unwarmingly. Scar looked up to it and remembered. He was at long last the king of Priderock. He had finally triumphed over Mufasa and Ahadi and what had so long been denied him was now all his. Power - pure power to do anything he wanted - just so long as the hyenas agreed. More and more poured over the rocks behind him, voice after echoed voice lifted up to the moon until one in particular caught Scar's ear.

"Yeah, we were prepared all right. Prepared for all this!"

Scar turned and pushed forwards with a flourish.

"Ah, my friends. I'm so glad you could come to my little party tonight."

"What? You call this a party? Scar, come on? Where's the food?"

Ed laughed beside his brother.

"Food? Oh well, if you really must eat at a time like this I'll see what Sarabi's got 'lion' around." Scar looked up away from Banzai, "That really is an awfully bad pun of yours you know." He brought his head down menacingly. "You'll have to do better than that next time!"

"Whoa, now, that was Shenzi's, wasn't it Ed?"

Ed sniggered, nodding his head, sending droplets of saliva flying towards Scar.

"Oh, how revolting. Now you two, there's a little 'something' I want you to do. Oh it's so simple: you'll do it in no time. No time at all."

"Oh yeah, what?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that I would so much like to see someone special again."

"Hey, what? Like Mufasa? Ha-ha-harr..." Ed joined Banzai in laughing.

"No, fools." Scar roughly clouted Banzai with the back of his forepaw. "You're going to find my mother and bring her back to the Pridelands."

"Your mother? Immue? 'Oh little Scarie, do eat your greens, yes, yes, yes!'"

"You'll not need a description then. So you'll be starting off right away."

"Immue. Now there's a real lioness, eh Scar? One of us, just like you."

"I said you'll be starting off..." he loomed down in front of Banzai, "NOW!"

"OK, OK. but you do look kinda like her close up!"

Scar roared. "Get out! And take your 'friend' here with you!"

Banzai pulled back sharply, yelped in terror and ran off with Ed at his heels.

~oOOo~

Some long tedious days later, and after a search of most of the lands surrounding the Pridelands, excepting the desert beyond the river which everyone knew was uncrossable, Banzai and Ed led a cautious and fearsome lioness back to the place which, for a few short months, she had almost called home. As she walked past the waterhole she stopped for a moment and wondered what might have happened had that fateful afternoon not been quite so hot.

She walked the few hundred lengths to Priderock slowly, taking in the sights she had remembered during long years alone. She was used to being alone, it was living in a pride that was unknown to her. Though she was returning to her son, the new king of Priderock, she was not returning home. She was to find the next few years with her son very difficult indeed...

_**Personal Notes**_

I wrote this story back in early 1997. It was a time when my storytelling ambition was not fully matched by my technical skill. As a result it is overly narrative heavy and somewhat clunky and unclear, particularly in what are now the middle chapters. This somewhat compounded by my experiments in out of order storytelling. However, the out of order material is arguably rather more successful than much of the supposedly more straightforward parts.

In this edited version I have not tried to hide these problems. I have tried to clarify the story rather than to change it. Splitting it into chapters has not always been simple. I have done it in order to fit the paradigm of this website and to make it more readable; presenting it in more easily digestible chunks.

My Ahadi is not very regal; he is in fact rather playful and often acts on impulse and instinct. Why do kings always have to be serious and magnificent? Not that my Ahadi could not have been magnificent should the situation have demanded it. I did this as it easy to make all kings alike and to fit the image most people have of kings (and queens). I wanted to clearly differentiate the various Pridelands kings: unsure Simba, tyrannical Scar, regal Mufasa, and the playful Ahadi.

In fact I wanted to make them lions, i.e. people, who happened to be kings; individuals, each with their own distinct personalities. I have also differentiated their presentations to match, and in this story I introduced the idea of presentation as adults, as well as that of cubs that the films give us. In the final story of my Pridelands timeline, _The Huntress at Sunset_, I go one step further, and show a presentation if a queen alongside her partner, the king.

All this is a result of something that is very important to me, that I don't play out the same scenes; the same safe, well-known scenes; over and over again and that I don't use the same characters. It's one reason for me concentrating more and more over time on female characters as I feel they get relatively little attention from many fanfiction writers. That and that the big issues in my life are most commonly associated with females such as gender equality and domestic abuse.

I tie all my Pridelands stories firmly into The Lion King. As in _To be a Queen_, I do that in this story in an epilogue. Showing that my Pridelands is not so much an alternative Lion King world, it is a stream of stories with The Lion King at its heart. Precisely how Scar, the cub, turns into Scar as we see him in Lion King, is not something I have yet written much on. I may well never write it. I see the progression as essentially inevitable, but the precise route it takes is, at this time, and ever since February 1997, not all that important to me.

In this story I present my take on why Scar is like he is, a common theme back in nineties Lion King fanfiction. What he is, is a narcissist. All Scar cares about is Scar, and in my Pridelands, his mother. No one else matters. Scar is not "turned to the dark side" by any external forces: there is no "evil" in my stories, He's not born good, and turned bad. He wasn't mistreated by his father, brother or even Sarabi as have all been suggested in fanfiction. Indeed here Scar and Mufasa like each other, and would have been together far more if it weren't for Immue.

Instead he is like he is because he was brought up that way, just as he wasn't scarred later in life; rather he was marked at birth. Scar's scar being an outward sign, a mark of his internal "badness", in both The Lion King and most, if not all fanfiction. In Simba's Pride, to give it a little credit, Kovu's scar is used a mark that others have to see past, to see the "real" Kovu.

Whether Scar could have ever been comfortable with his brother as king, which might be a more typical "alterative universe" fanfiction scenario, is a moot point: he is the product of his environment, his parents and his upbringing. There could not have been a Scar without any one of these elements.

Right from the start his mother instilled in him that he was the rightful heir to my Pridelands. She really believes it; though I make it clear it isn't actually true. Scar grows up with a powerful, unshakable sense of entitlement that by the time of The Lion King has grown into full blown hate of anyone and anything that he perceives as being in the way of what is rightfully his; even though in truth it is nothing of the sort. He really believes he is the rightful king, and that Mufasa is the usurper, despite all evidence to the contrary. This scenario is rare, if not unique in fanfiction, but is common, usually in much lower-key ways, in real life.

There are real life Scars everywhere: (almost) one in every family - just as Zazu says, which is, of course where I got the original idea from. In many lives they are just a pain: they ruin family occasions and the like; Zazu's right again. However, as partners they ruin lives, and can be very dangerous. Get them into power, running companies and organisations, and you've got a pretty unpleasant place to work. Put them in charge of countries and… well, think of any dictator and the horrors that they do and you've can see the damage: "disappeared" people, political prisoners, work camps, rigged elections, one party states, police states, secret police, killing fields, mass murder, genocide, world wars. Compared to that, what are a drought, famine and a few disgruntled lionesses?

I also wanted to show that this behaviour was not confined to males. Females can be, and are in real life just as narcissistic. It generally manifests somewhat differently, but it there nonetheless. So I gave fanfiction one disturbed lioness: Immue. Here though I made a important point: these people, as damaging as they so often are, tend to get things done; they make things happen for good or ill. Without them our lives would be safer and easier and arguably happier, but they would be less interesting and far less dynamic.

In my Pridelands stories Immue is the driving force. It is she that makes Scar the lion he is, and thereby gives us The Lion King. She too, by one fleeting appearance, provides the story of _To be a Queen_. She's the trigger for the events of my original _The Pridelands_ script. She doesn't appear in _The Huntress at Sunset_, but that story really is set in the desolation caused by the fallout of her presence and actions. As soon as she meets Ahadi here in _A Shining New Era_, my version of the Pridelands begins spiralling increasingly out of control toward ruin, only to be finally resolved in _Huntress_.

Why Akase and not Uru? Well, I never did like Uru as a name for one thing. More importantly however, I wanted to differentiate my Mufasa's mother from others. I also wanted her to be somewhat naïve and too trusting. Here Akase, the name was invented by Brian Tiemann in his unfinished story, "The Pride", is not mother to both Mufasa and Scar, but just to Mufasa; Immue being Scar's mother.

How does that work exactly? Well, here I have to point out one of the key distinctions between my stories and most other Lion King fanfiction in that my lions are rather more naturalistic. In all my stories I make clear distinctions between love, physical intimacy and reproductive duty, especially for the males. Some readers, especially younger ones, have problems with that and don't "get it". I don't worry about that: they are not the readers I write for. If you are old enough to be able to draw the lines between each; and it really is a matter of age: maturity and experience; then my stories are for you. Then, less mature readers also can't "get" that Scar need not have been "made that way" by someone or something else. It's something that most people learn the hard way through often bitterly painful life experience.

That then is A Shining New Era. In a way, that I felt I needed to write these notes at all is a sign that it's not a good story. All this should have come through in the story itself; I should not have needed to explain anything. I did say my storytelling ambition was not fully matched by my technical skill…

It is not too late to review. Reviews and comments are always welcome, even if you didn't like the story... but then you probably wouldn't be still reading, would you?


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